DISCOVER THE EXACT STEPS TO MAKING MONEY ONLINE!

A Snapshot of My Online Journey

In this how to affiliate marketing guide I will help you learn just what it takes to make a great income from the internet. I’ll also introduce you to the training I did with Wealthy Affiliate. While there are many Wealthy Affiliate reviews out there, mine is written based on my own experiences with this training and affiliate marketing platform.

So, why should you listen to me and follow what I have to say?

Anyone Can Make Money Online – And It’s AWESOME!

The very first income I made online was way back in 2004 when I started selling items on eBay. I didn’t make big bucks with it, but it proved to me that there was money to be made on the internet, and it was also a lot of fun.

There are actually loads of ways to make money online, either on the side or fulltime, but there are also heaps of distractions and scams out there as well.

I never fell for any scams on my journey, but I was constantly chasing after “shiny objects” a lot and spent way too much time researching them, only to discover they were either scams or schemes that simply couldn’t live up to their own hype.

In 2010 eBooks were really getting popular, and being a writer I decided to jump on board and started writing and publishing eBooks, which I sold on Amazon Kindle and other online retail outlets.

The money rolled in for a while, but I didn’t have much control over whether anyone bought my books or not, and the eBook market quickly became saturated with new authors and cheap and free books.

I still make money from eBooks to this day, but not as much as back in 2010-2012. Even so, it’s an online income stream that is truly passive and ongoing.

After the decline of eBook sales I realised I needed to establish multiple online income streams. I went searching for legit ways to do that and affiliate marketing kept coming onto my radar.

I did a lot of research into affiliate marketing and it actually didn’t sound that hard. Another thing that appealed to me was just how cheap it was to get started. No capital required, which made it a possibility for just about everyone who was interested.

I knew I needed direction, though, so I could shortcut the success process, but I didn’t want to sign up for any make money online (MMO) scams.

Wealthy Affiliate kept getting recommended, so in early 2015 I joined their training platform, went through the courses and achieved my goal of earning more than a fulltime living online through multiple sources of income.

The reason you can listen to me is because I’ve been there and done it. I’ll help guide you on the right path so you can achieve success as well and live the ultimate laptop lifestyle!

First, let’s set the scene a little.

We’ve all heard the expression of “make money while you sleep”.

That’s not a myth. It’s a reality for myself and many millions of other people across the world. Every morning when I get out of bed my affiliate marketing business has made me money while I’ve been asleep.

The real beauty of an online business like this is that it’s global. You can make money with it 24/7/365.

Imagine being able to quit that day job and not having to wake up to the irritating buzz of an alarm each day. No more frustrating and time-consuming commute to work and back each day, either.

You are your own boss, you set your own hours, you don’t even need to get dressed for work. Start the day with your morning coffee or favourite beverage, jump on your computer and check in on how your business is doing and how much money you’ve made overnight.

You also get to spend more time with your family and loved ones, watch the kids grow up, be able to attend those important life events and the list goes on.

An online business is an incredible opportunity like no other. It really gives you the ultimate lifestyle freedom of having both time and money.

You need both, together, to really be able to live life to the full. It’s true freedom.

Also, you can run your business from anywhere if you have a laptop and an internet connection. Hence the term “the laptop lifestyle”.

Work from a coffee shop, the park, down near the beach.

Want to travel overseas and make money along the way?

You can do that too, legally. There are no boundaries and borders when it comes to running an online affiliate marketing business.

How An Online Business Will Benefit You

I’m just going to give you a quick list of bullet points here. Not every benefit and advantage will be covered, but we’ll list some of the main ones.

You are your own boss

Pick and choose your own work hours

Spend more time with family and those closest to you

Make money while you sleep

Work from anywhere in the world

No more traveling to work and back

There’s no limit on your income potential

You no longer trade time for money

Earn residual and passive income (the best kind)

Establish multiple income streams for financial security and wealth growth

Do more of what you love

Enjoy the lifestyle freedom of money and time

It’s really cheap to do

Anyone can be successful at this

Access a global market of more than 3 billion internet users daily

Take time off whenever you like

And so much more…

How Affiliate Marketing Works

The thing I love most about this type of online business – apart from the very low start up costs and overheads – is the simplicity of it.

Let’s look at how the process works.

As an affiliate you don’t actually buy and sell goods or services. You simply recommend them in one form or another and earn commissions when people take action.

As an example, let’s say you’re an affiliate for Amazon and you love promoting their range of kitchen appliances. On your website or social media account you might make mention of the latest and greatest microwave oven.

You include your unique affiliate link with the promotion, someone clicks through on your link and goes to the Amazon site. They purchase that microwave (or any other product for that matter) and you earn a commission for the sale.

In essence it’s really that simple.

You’re just like an online sales rep for various companies and products. You don’t have to buy any of the products and try to sell them for a profit. Just recommend, promote and get paid commissions.

Consider This Before Starting

Affiliate marketing is not some “get rich quick” scheme. It takes time, effort and learning.

The online gurus you’ll come across all like to tell people what they want to hear; that you can make big money instantly with virtually no work required.

That’s simply not true and the sales pitch of choice for online scammers.

The only way you could achieve that is by winning the lotto or something similar.

The internet isn’t some magical, mythical place where everything happens instantly and easily. No more than the offline world is.

Just keep in mind that if you really want to be successful with this you need to dedicate yourself to it, learn how to do it the right way and have some patience.

Your work won’t pay off right away, but it will pay off. And when it does you’ll be living a life that most other people will envy.

You’ll have time, you’ll have money and you’ll have freedom.

It’s well worth it.

You won’t be alone on your journey. I’ll be there by your side to help out, along with countless other members of the community I recommend.

Income Potential

These days the number of people going online around the world each day is edging closer and closer to some 4 billion people.

That’s a massive marketplace!

Another thing to keep in mind is that so many people go online to buy stuff now, and that number is increasing all the time.

This is the perfect playground for affiliate marketers to cash in.

Now, some of you might only want to make a little bit of extra cash on the side, and that’s fine. Others might hope to replace their day jobs and work from home online fulltime.

Either way is fine. Affiliate marketing can achieve either goal.

But the income potential doesn’t stop there.

There are some marketers who are making 7 figure annual incomes from this business, with much of that being pure profit!

Just one website post alone can make you thousands of dollars over the years. Imagine a website filled with content that generates income like this!

Basically you create a piece of content once and it keeps on earning, which is why you’re no longer trading time for money and have the potential to make really big dollars.

There truly is no limit on your income potential.

Anyone Can Do This

You don’t have to be some super seller, a gifted writer, a YouTuber or a tech guru.

Anyone can be successful at affiliate marketing if you are shown how to do it right. I know people who write content for their websites and English isn’t even their first language. These people make money anyway.

I also know a lady in her 80s who knew hardly anything about computers when she first started, yet following the Wealthy Affiliate training she’s managed to build an affiliate marketing website that brings in a nice monthly income.

Most people don’t know what they’re doing when they first get started. We all began at that point. It’s all about the training.

Even experienced marketers have joined Wealthy Affiliate, because it’s such an awesome platform and has a really helpful community. WA is for beginners and experienced marketers alike.

Let’s now talk about Wealthy Affiliate and why I recommend it so highly.

Follow a Proven Success Blueprint

Basically the process of setting up an affiliate marketing business and making money with it can be achieved in 4 steps, as the screenshot below illustrates.

Let’s look at these 4 steps in a little more detail.

1 – Choose An Interest – An interest is the niche you decide to focus on. Your niche can really be anything at all, as long as you have an interest in it to keep you motivated. And you can make money with any niche you choose.

2 – Build a Website – Don’t freak out about this. You don’t need to code anything. The website you build will be done in WordPress and it’s actually quite easy to get up and running. The Wealthy Affiliate training takes you through the process one step at a time.

3 – Attract Visitors – Your website is not going to make any money unless people know it exists. Throughout the training you’ll learn the steps to get your website showing up in Google, as well as other ways to get those all-important visitors. Website traffic = Dollars for you.

4 – Earn Revenue – At the end of the day this is what it’s all about. Once you have the first 3 steps in place you’ll start bringing in that cash. And believe me, it’s the greatest buzz in the world!

2 Great Reasons To Join Wealthy Affiliate

There are many reasons why I recommend joining Wealthy Affiliate, and I’ll go over those shortly, but first there really are 2 awesome reasons to join up today.

#1 – Wealthy Affiliate Is Completely FREE To Join!

That’s right. It’s not a trial offer that expires. In fact, you don’t even need to submit any credit card details when you sign up. Just your email address, your name and a username is all that’s required to get started.

There is an upgrade to a paid Premium Membership, which I highly recommend if you’re serious about success, but it’s entirely optional.

You can remain a free member for life if you like, but there are some limitations.

#2 – Wealthy Affiliate Offers the Best Make Money Online Training There Is!

While there are other good platforms out there that teach you how to make money online, Wealthy Affiliate is the best one I know, and I’ve researched and tried out many.

It’s also the only platform I know that offers a free membership, and they don’t constantly hit you with upsells to be able to access more and more of the training and features.

You either opt for the free membership or the paid membership and that’s it.

The very reason I’m successful at this is because I made the decision to join Wealthy Affiliate. Without their guidance and support I would have just been shooting in the dark with no real direction.

Wealthy Affiliate Success Stories

Just to whet your appetite and show you what’s possible, I’ve included some screenshots of Wealthy Affiliate success stories below.

To read more about these stories, simply click on the screenshot and you’ll be redirected to the corresponding success story on the WA site. Well worth a look.

Here’s How Wealthy Affiliate Will Help You

The main way Wealthy Affiliate will benefit you is the guidance they offer with their training and the community of members in general.

What this does is save you a lot of time and frustration along the path to online success.

A Wealthy Affiliate membership is worth it just for that alone, as you’ll not only likely achieve success, but much sooner than if you tried to do it all by yourself.

Not only does Wealthy Affiliate have their official training, but the members also create mini trainings of their own, based on their own unique experiences, knowledge and skills. You can learn so much from everyone else there.

When it comes to the official training, it’s all done in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step process. The training is a mix of text and video with tasks to complete at your own pace.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Anyone can do this.

Even the owners – Kyle and Carson – get involved in the community, answering questions and just generally helping people out in real time.

It’s not even all about affiliate marketing. You can acquire the skills and knowledge to operate all manner of online businesses and make money opportunities when you’re an active member of Wealthy Affiliate.

Features and Benefits At a Glance

Step-by-step training

Weekly live training webinars

Member contributed training

Personal mentoring

Private message members

Live chat for real time help and interaction

Newbie friendly platform

FREE to join

Only one upsell

Technical support 24/7/365

2 free websites for Starter Members

Up to 50 websites for Premium Members

Free SSL certificate for websites

Buy domain names directly from the platform

Easy website builder

Get comments and feedback on your website

Very secure website hosting included

WA is regularly updated

There is an affiliate program

The community is awesome

Keyword research tools

1000s of free WordPress website themes to choose from

And heaps more…

The Awesome Wealthy Affiliate Community

For me, and I’m sure just about every other member at Wealthy Affiliate will agree, one of the very best things about the platform is being able to interact with the community there.

There is a real attitude of “pay it forward”. Everyone wants to help each other succeed and see each other reach success.

The vibe is positive, uplifting, encouraging and motivating.

It can be very hard to succeed in anything if you feel like you’re going it alone. You’ll never have that feeling when you’re a Wealthy Affiliate member.

The community is made up of beginners right through to seasoned affiliate marketers and those who have achieved success in other areas online. So much of what I’ve learnt has been through the help and guidance of other like-minded members.

This community is like a mastermind group that you can access any time of the day or not.

It’s one of the most valuable assets any entrepreneur could ever hope to have.

Getting Started Training

The main training – and the one I recommend you get started with – is called the “Online Entrepreneur Certification” training.

This training teaches you how to build a website from scratch and how affiliate marketing works. It guides you through the process of choosing a niche to target, getting traffic to your website, monetising your content with affiliate offers, and ultimately making money from your online business.

As a free Starter Member you gain access to the first 10 lessons of this training. There are 50 lessons in all, but to complete it you need to upgrade to a paid Premium Membership.

Each lesson is very easy to follow. You can go through them entirely at your own pace and ask questions of the community along the way if you don’t understand something.

The lessons are a mixture of both text and video and they’re actually fun to do.

It’s really not that hard.

Affiliate Bootcamp Training

Affiliate Bootcamp starts off quite similar to the Online Entrepreneur Training, in that it shows you how to set up a website from scratch.

However, there is a major difference with this training, as it focuses on teaching members how to be successful affiliates of the Wealthy Affiliate platform. Meaning, you learn how to effectively promote Wealthy Affiliate to others as well as other make money online opportunities.

Unless you already have experience in making money online, I wouldn’t recommend starting with the Bootcamp training. Begin with the other.

Once again free members get access to the first 10 lessons. There are 70 lessons in all in Bootcamp.

The Wealthy Affiliate Memberships

There really are only 2 main memberships at Wealthy Affiliate. However, a third option is to buy a yearly membership for a reduced price and save dollars.

The 2 main memberships are:

Free Starter Member = $0

Paid Premium Member = $49/Month or $359/Year

In November Wealthy Affiliate always run a Black Friday sale towards the end of the month, where you can get a yearly membership for just $299.

Starter Member

Everyone who joins begins as a Starter Member, unless you immediately purchase a paid membership.

Remember, you can remain free for as long as you desire. You never have to upgrade and no time limits are imposed on your free membership. It doesn’t expire.

As a free member you can build 2 free websites and also have them hosted for free on Wealthy Affiliate’s state-of-the-art, highly-secure servers.

You can partake of the first 10 lessons of the Online Entrepreneur Training and the Affiliate Bootcamp training.

For the first week you’ll have unlimited access to everything on the platform. After that, there will be some restrictions on what you can access. However, you can still communicate with other members and build 2 affiliate websites.

If you want to maintain access to absolutely everything and do all of the training, then the next option is the best choice.

Premium Member

As specified above, this is the paid membership version and gives you access to everything for as long as you remain a Premium Member.

There are no restrictions with this membership. Do all the official training, sit in on the weekly webinars, have free access to everything on the platform and the entire community.

Anyone who is serious about their online business and achieving success will take up the paid membership. It really is a very small investment in a big future.

People spend tens of thousands of dollars to go to college or do other forms of training. Here you can set yourself up in a lifestyle business that’ll generate awesome income for years to come for next to nothing in comparison.

Well and truly worth upgrading.

Earn While You Learn

The beauty of the Wealthy Affiliate platform is that you can actually earn money while you learn and build out your online business.

This will likely depend on how long it takes you to go through the training, but the potential to earn money while you’re doing the lessons is definitely there.

Wealthy Affiliate Testimonials

The response to Wealthy Affiliate, what they teach and what they offer is very positive for the most part.

Below is just a very brief snapshot of some of the comments from members.

Getting Started Once Inside WA

When you go to join Wealthy Affiliate you’ll be presented with a sign up page that looks like the screenshot below.

All you need to do at first is input your email address and you’re in.

Once inside you’ll be prompted for a few more basic details.

Put a picture on your profile and write a few lines about yourself as soon as possible. The reason I say this is you’ll look like a real person that way and other members will start interacting with you. That’s what you want.

After your profile is set up, which only takes a few minutes, have a look around or take the official Wealthy Affiliate tour.

From that point on, once you’ve familiarised yourself with the platform, I recommend getting started on the Online Entrepreneur Certification training.

Everything will really start to make sense then.

Special Bonuses When You Join

When you join up through me, I’ll be there to lend a hand and offer advice any time you need it. So will the other members. Simply send me a message if you need to know anything. I’ll always be there to help so you won’t feel like you’re on your own.

If you decide to take action quickly and want to take your online business training to the next level, upgrade to a paid Premium Membership within the first 7 days and you’ll get the first month’s membership for just $19 instead of the usual $49. You don’t have to upgrade, but it’s well worth it.

Are You Ready To Get Started?

Great!

Just click on the banner below and join me and 1000s of others on the Wealthy Affiliate platform. Remember, it’s completely FREE to join and get started. No credit card required.

Take the first step in securing your financial future online. Click below and let the awesome journey begin.

I am an author, online entrepreneur and internet marketer. I work from home and anywhere else in the world I choose to work. I've been making a living online since 2010, and you can do it too. I'm here to help.

12 Comments

Jag
October 4, 2018 @
1:36 PM

Wow…this is a very thorough and detailed explanation of a great program. Wealthy Affiliate has given me confidence in how to become self-sufficient.

I am not able to work outside of the home anymore, so this works perfectly for my health and schedule. I know there is much to learn, but also know that a serious person will go onto make it successfully.

I’ve seen a person as young as 16 be dedicated to WA and make it to go on to become a well off person. He’s been doing it for a few years as well. I am thinking of getting my 17 year old into this as well.

Thanks for stopping by. It sounds like you and everyone you know are already on the path to online success. And yes, some people who are still quite young have done really well with internet businesses.

Hi and thanks for this great review. I agree that you will need to have the right platform to help guide and coach you in order to have the best chances at success. Also how they have such great features like the security and site manager is amazing. I would ask what do you feel is a reasonable time frame to start seeing results? Love the hear your thoughts, thanks, Kenny

Thanks for stopping by and reading my Wealthy Affiliate review, and guide to affiliate marketing.

Yep, finding the right platform to lend you support and show you the ropes is everything. It can be hard to find the path to success when simply going it alone.

With regards to your question about timeframes for seeing results, that can be a tough one to answer as it can depend on so many things, so many variables.

One thing I will say is this: Anyone who is seriously wanting to make money online – long-term – needs to be patient. Affiliate marketing, and actually most ways of making money online, are not get rich quick schemes. You won’t see instant results. You’re betting off joining an online gambling site if you hope to have a chance to make money instantly (not that I really recommend that).

With affiliate amrketing and what Wealthy Affiliate teach, some people see positive signs within the first few weeks, but typically it’ll be 3 month sor more of learning and effort before anyone can realistically expect to start seeing the fruit of their labour.

Having said that, this is a long-term thing, so a few months really means nothing in the overall scheme of things, because this business grows and grows and can be making you residual and passive income for many years to come.

I live the laptop lifestule, so I’m living proof that it works and is worth it!

Darren, thank you for such a thorough information about making money online. As an affiliate marketer myself, living your life with freedom is what resonates with me the most. I think a lot of times so many people are stuck on jobs that they don’t like because they feel that they don’t have a way to get out. They are dependent on the finances that they make so the become trapped. And those that want to branch out don’t have enough grit to stick through. What recommendations would you give someone who has been wanting a life of freedom but aren’t able to do it?

I’d recommend starting out just doing something on the side, not putting too much pressure on themselves. Say it was affiliate marketing, or doing the training at Wealthy Affiliate, just start out allocating 5-10 hours a week, something that’s manageable and doesn’t interfere with current commitments. As things build and money starts to come in, then they might be able to scale back their other job to part-time work and put more hours into their online business, ultimately going fulltime form home.

Patience is important, becaus eit will take time to transition from one lifestyle to the new “preferred” lifestyle. But it’s all worth it.

Yep, you should look into the Wealthy Affiliate platform if you want some really easy to follow training that shows you how to make money online in a step by step format. You can do it all at your own pace too.

I used to make money with eBay and became a powerseller. However, it got old after awhile. Packaging and mailing out products daily. At one time I was packaging 20-30 products a day.

You made a smart move in joining Wealthy Affiliate. It’s truly great. I have been there since 2008.

However, it does take a lot of work. I remember struggling in the beginning years. But, as I got more experience I stopped struggling and really enjoy the entire process of developing a website and making money online.

What advice do you have for those that are getting started in affiliate marketing? Have you made any mistakes or anything that others need to be warned to avoid?

In answer to your question, I’ve made a number of mistakes, one of the biggest being in too much of a rush churning out content rather than taking more time and creating quality.

Affiliate marketing isn’t a get rich quick scheme, so I think the biggest piece of advice I could give to newcomers is to have patience and know that in time the rewards will come and they will snow ball.

Too many people quit too early because they’re expecting instant results. It doesn’t work that way. At first it’ll look like nothing’s happening, but after a few months it all really starts to accelerate.

Hi Darren. What an impressive post about the EXACT STEPS TO MAKING MONEY ONLINE! You are right in every point you are talking about.

My way in online money making story is a bit the same as yours. I began about in 2007 and on the August of 2015 join Wealthy Affiliate company. Just, you said that never fallen in the scam traps, but I was involved in some of these. I consider it as learning stage and what could teach you more than losing your hard earned money.

Bora Bora sounds like it would be totally awesome, Andrejs. Is that where you’re from?

Yep your journey does sound a bit similar to mine. Sorry to hear to got caught up in some scams. It happens to a lot of people. Hopefully my website and the reviews I write helps people avoid at least some of those scams out there.